Category: Bath Redo

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a week since I’ve updated shower remod progess. I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties. Anyway, here’s a summary:

• Wednesday, Oct. 5 – reinforced the framing and started green board installation
• Thursday, Oct. 6  – finished the green board installation and floated the corner seams and niche pan
• Friday, Oct. 7 – installed the dry pack sub-pan
• Saturday, Oct. 8 – 1st coat of Hydroban sealer on the sub-pan
• Sunday, Oct. 9 – 2nd coat of Hyrdorban
• Monday, Oct. 10 – installed the dry pack shower floor
• Tuesday, Oct. 11 – wall tile installation began
• Wednesday, Oct. 12 – wall tile installation completed

On Tuesday, I had a bit of a panic attack. Somehow, I’d mis-counted the number of sheets of accent tile we had on hand. I had it down as 5; we had 4, which left us about 3″ short of completing the band. Luckily, Ceramic Tile Plus had it in stock, so after quick Maui Bus trip to town, my pulse and respiration rates returned to normal.

The other challenge showed up on the inside of the door openings. Two columns of 2″x6″ bullnose tile was just a bit narrow to cover the area. Steve ended up cutting some very narrow, like 1/3 inch, field tile pieces to fill the gap. Fortunately, most of this area is covered by the door frame, so he only tiled the exposed areas. Behind the door frame, there’ll be a wide grout joint. Because Paul won’t have to drill through tile to install the door, it should expedite that process.

Found out yesterday that our door is in. We’re pretty much on schedule, but it’s going to take me days to get all of the dust out of here.

Great Five-O last night involving soldiers on R&R leave. The episode contained a fairly heavy dose of anti-Vietnam war sentiment. Leonard Freeman was such a Lefty.

 

The worker bees are a bit upset because the elevator’s been out of service all week and they have to lug stuff up and down the stairs.

The plumber was here on Tuesday to set the valve. The decision was made to leave the old P-trap in place and just replace the flange and upper drain parts. First attempt to remove the old flange didn’t work, so Paul loaded it up with penetrating oil.

With the walls open, I did spot an area where a cold water pipe came in contact with a metal stud—most improper construction. There was a bit of discoloration on both the pipe and stud, but no obvious pitting.  According to the plumber, any corrosion should be visible on the outside, so if it looked OK, just wrap it with electrical tape. I’m not 100 percent sure I’m buying that, but that’s where we are.

Yesterday, the plumber was able to unscrew the flange and after much hammering, he was able to remove the three mounting bolts. He’s supposedly procuring replacement parts that will fit. If he can’t find the proper parts, the cement around the old P-trap will have to be jack hammered out and the trap replaced. Until the drain issue is resolved, Paul can’t do anything with construction of the shower pan. We certainly don’t want to jack out freshly-installed dry-pack and sealer. Around the plumbing work, Paul was able to do his framing reinforcement and get most of the backer board up.

I have an issue with the placement of the valve with respect to the surface of the finished wall. I expressed my concerns to Paul and plumber dude, but the plumber says were fine and Paul wants to grant him his technical due. Now that the backer board is up, I’m not feeling a whole lot more confident, but we’ll see. I HATE re-dos.

No Hawaii Five-O ‘cause KHWE is selling Jesus annuities. Bummer.

More pictures.

Day one of the hall bath tile project has come and gone and I’m always glad to get past the noise and dust of the demolition and relieved that nothing got broken in the process. Removing the old tile did reveal some minimal signs of leakage through the backer board and there was a bit of mold.  It also revealed the shitty 1×2 steel framing that was used in that area of the condo. Structural beefing up will be in order. As I suspected, the pan threshold under the shower door was poured concrete, which means Paul will be using a paint-on pan seal as opposed to a mat.  The plumber was in and roughed in the valve. The wall with the shower head and valve also contains the plumbing for the washing machine and is a real rat’s nest of pipes. I was a little concerned about the offsets he used when installing the valve and how it would impact the ability to set the valve at the correct depth vis-à-vis the finished wall, but Paul seems to think it’s OK. I shouldn’t sweat this merde, but I hate re-dos and I’ve done enough of these projects to be a bit gun-shy. The drain has not been touched. The plumber’s plan was to see if he could unscrew the existing floor drain head and just replace the screen with a new, shiny one. The drain doesn’t seem to be moving, and I’m not real happy with that idea, so I think we’ll insist digging out the old p-trap and riser and start clean—a lot more work, but not my problem.

Playing General Contractor sure has a way to eat up the day. I seem to be getting little else done and it’s probably time to hit the task list, but first I think I’ll go read the paper.  Remod on Hawaiian time.

I’m leaving the live camera off  for this project because a.) there’s just no good place to put it without cutting a  hole in the wall and b.) last time around, it spooked some of Paul’s helper troops.

My rule for project estimation in Hawaii Nei is take what the contractor says is ‘worst case,’ double it and add 10%. It’s generally pretty effective.

We were suppose to begin the demolition today, but I found out late Tuesday that we won’t start that until Monday. Good thing is is that right after the demo, the plumber is scheduled to come in and do his rough-in work.

Vavle arrived yesterday, Flooring Direct doesn’t have any more of the unsanded grout we used in the master bath. I’ve got 7 lbs of the stuff on hand, but my calcs say we’ll need close to 9 lbs. That won’t work, so I found a suitable replacement. I’ll order the door when I’m in town on Saturday.

I’m going to try to make the bar light look better with a coat of stainless steel appliance paint. I hate doing that stuff on the lanai, because the overspray blows all over the place, but  I figured since the existing shower’s getting trashed, I’ll do it in there. Pretty akamai, ya?

Haven’t posted here for a long time,  but it is time to start another project–the LAST tile project. Bath #2, aka. the hall bath is going to get tiled to match the shower in the master bath. Paul Owen from Absolute Tile and Marble is scheduled to begin work next week; a new valve assembly is on the way from the mainland, tile has been purchased and I think I have an acceptable bid on a glass door.

The only other additional work I have planned for this go-round is to see if I can replace the noisy vent fan in bath #2 and maybe try to figure out a way to make the eight-bulb bar light fixture look a bit more modern.

Today, between Tweeting nasty things about MSNBC “management,” I managed to get the last of the dust out of the bedroom and hall. I did one more touch-up on the semi-gloss paint and did my usual paint touch-up on the rest of the condo. I’ve always believed that there is a band of drunks, who from time to time, wander up and down the hall seeing what they can crash into.

After that, I got all the floors foot-mopped. Only clean-up task left is to get a bit of stuff off the lanai and do a bit of cleaning out here. Once that’s done, I’m looking forward to a labor-less weekend.

With a few showers in the area, sunset cocktails the past two evenings have been sans sun. That’s actually a plus–keeps the riffraff off the beach.

Just used the new shower and it’s great!

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A bit more touch-up painting, re-installing fixtures, putting up the shower curtain and washing the floor. We’re just about there. The plumber didn’t caulk the toilet, but those guys usually aren’t good with a gun.

Now it’s time to finish cleaning the bedroom and make a trip to the laundromat to wash the dust out of the spread and the rugs.

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Most of today was spent with a brush in my hand. First, I finished up the painting, including some touch-up on the semi-gloss outside of the bathroom.  After the paint, I start with the grout sealer. Paul was big on sealing the wall joints, but I did it anyway. The shower will be ready for use tomorrow. Yippie!

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Today’s other major acomplishment was getting that damn toilet out of the hall. Paul and the plumber said they showed up a little after nine, but with that lovely fountain running, I didn’t hear them at the door. Plumber finally returned around 4:30–I was getting worried. The left-over boxes also went to the recycle bin, so the hall’s getting back to normal.

Sunset cocktail was a bust. Winds have shifted to the north with the passage of a cold front and it was just too chilly to finish my drink. Perhaps dress other than shorts and the requisite wife-beater would have been a better choice.

Did I mention John Boehner is a total douche? I wish this Boehner wouldn’t last longer than 4 hours. And on a similar note, Arizona Republicans picked Ben Quayle over conservative Democrat Jon Hulburd. I guess morons have a real attraction for each other.